{"product_id":"the-infinite-beauty-of-the-world-dante-s-encyclopedia-and-the-names-of-god-9781788743952","title":"The Infinite Beauty of the World: Dante’s","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis book proposes a radically new interpretation of the \u003cem\u003eComedy\u003c\/em\u003e’s encyclopedism by focusing on Dante’s work in light of the medieval \u003cem\u003eimago mundi\u003c\/em\u003e tradition. The work opens with a discussion of how the Florentine poet transgressed every generic boundary in his effort to gather «into one volume» a vast and varied set of creatures, places, landscapes, historical and mythological persons, weather conditions, and arts. It then goes on to show that this extraordinary encyclopedic breadth should be understood in the terms of Boethian and Augustinian spiritual exercises of envisioning the whole world in the mind’s eye, which themselves became the interpretive framework for the spiritual ends behind medieval encyclopedic texts. By bringing attention to Latin Platonism and twelfth-century authors (such as Alan of Lille, Bernard Silvestris, William of Conches, Hugh of St. Victor, and Thierry of Chatres), this book provides compelling new readings of the \u003cem\u003eDe vulgari eloquentia\u003c\/em\u003e, as well as provocative insights into key figures (such as Brunetto Latini, Pier della Vigna, and Ulysses) and key passages (\u003cem\u003ePurgatorio\u003c\/em\u003e 28, \u003cem\u003eParadiso\u003c\/em\u003e 26, and \u003cem\u003eParadiso\u003c\/em\u003e 33).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e«\u003ci\u003eThe Infinite Beauty of the World\u003c\/i\u003e offers a fascinating interpretive journey towards richer appreciation of the \u003ci\u003eCommedia\u003c\/i\u003e as a cosmological poem. Baxter compellingly invites us to encounter Dante anew as a poet who seeks to show his readers the whole of reality while embracing, in wonder, its divine mystery.» (Vittorio Montemaggi, Senior Lecturer in Religion and the Arts, King’s College London, author of \u003ci\u003eReading Dante’s\u003c\/i\u003e Commedia \u003ci\u003eas Theology: Divinity Realized in Human Encounter\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e«Jason Baxter’s new book provides the first extensive study of the tradition of the imago mundi and its significance for Dante. Drawing on a wealth of materials – biblical commentaries, glosses on ancient poets, spiritual treatises, and encyclopaedic works of various kinds – Baxter explores how medieval culture developed a rich set of practices of mental visualization so as to ‹see› the cosmos in its totality from above, and he shows how Dante exploited such traditions. Elegantly written and richly documented, Baxter’s book offers an important new approach to Dante’s encyclopedism.» (Simon Gilson, Agnelli-Serena Professor of Italian, University of Oxford)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCONTENTS: From Macrobius’s \u003cem\u003eSacrum Poema\u003c\/em\u003e to Dante’s \u003cem\u003eComedìa\u003c\/em\u003e – The View from Above and the Vision of the Heart –\u003cem\u003e Universaliter et Membratim\u003c\/em\u003e: The \u003cem\u003eImago Mundi\u003c\/em\u003e and Dante’s \u003cem\u003eVolume\u003c\/em\u003e – The Failed Encyclopedism of Hell – The Garden of Eden and the Universal Garden – \u003cem\u003eInnominis\/Omninominis\u003c\/em\u003e: Dante, Mirrors, and the Infinite Names of God in \u003cem\u003eParadiso\u003c\/em\u003e – \u003cem\u003eNova Creatura\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eCanticum Novum\u003c\/em\u003e.","brand":"Peter Lang International Academic Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51042518434135,"sku":"9781788743952","price":44.91,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781788743952.jpg?v=1750954483","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-infinite-beauty-of-the-world-dante-s-encyclopedia-and-the-names-of-god-9781788743952","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}